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Vatican Rift Tests Beijing's Limits of Freedom

By

Michael Connolly

Updated Jan. 31, 2007 12:01 a.m. ET

The struggle over who will lead China's Catholics is frequently opaque, revealed only in the nuanced signals that are a hallmark of both the Vatican and the Chinese Communist party. Last year, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the official body that oversees local Catholics, appointed three bishops who hadn't been approved by the pope. That reversed years of quiet progress toward accommodation, which had included signals that the Vatican was willing to switch diplomatic recognition to China from rival Taiwan. Anger over the consecrations has prompted the Vatican to re-evaluate its effort to restore ties with...